1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens-fitted photographic film unit, more particularly to a photographic film unit which is packaged in a form convenient to be held manually.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lens-fitted photographic film units are on sale under trade names such as "Fujicolor Quick Snap" and "Fujicolor Quick Snap Flash" (manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.) When one purchases a photographic film unit, it is readily portable and adapted to take photographs whenever desired. After completion of the use of the photographic film in the film unit, the photographic film unit, the photographic film unit is left with a photographic finishing agent without taking out the film.
Various proposals have been made for reducing the cost of manufacturing photographic film units: such film units in general are commercially packaged in an external cardboard packaging provided with printed decoration as well as printed instructions. The packaging also serves as protection. There have been proposals for reducing the overall size of the photographic film units in view of improving their portability.
Such lens-fitted photographic film units are pre-loaded with 135-type photographic film within a cassette. In the course of manufacture of the film unit, the film is drawn out of the cassette, while the withdrawn strip of film is wound in a roll. The unit is sold with the film thus fully withdrawn, the empty cassette with one end of the film attached to its spool being disposed on one side of the exposure frame and the unexposed film wound in a roll being disposed on the other side of the exposure frame. After exposure of each frame of the photo film, an exposed portion of the film one frame in length is wound back into the cassette. There is a problem in making very compact a film unit containing such a cassette, because the ability to reduce in size the photo film unit is limited by the fixed size of the cassette.
Formerly there were only photographic film units whose depth, between their front and rear surfaces, was at least the diameter of the cassette. More recently, it was proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/928,703, to construct a photographic film unit having a depth less than the diameter of the cassette. In such a film unit, the body or film housing has a lesser depth, and a cassette-containing portion is partly cylindrical and disposed to cover the front of a contained cassette while protruding to the front beyond the thinner part of the film housing.
However, such a film unit raises a problem in that it is very difficult to cover the protuberant cassette portion with a cardboard packaging. The convenience of a greatly reduced depth of the film unit cannot be enjoyed, because the film housing requires protection by use of the cardboard packaging.